Martin Short opens up about ‘nightmare’ death of his daughter Katherine | TV comedy

Martin Short has spoken out for the first time about the death of his daughter Katherine Short, saying her death was “a nightmare for the family”.

Katherine died in February at her home in the Hollywood Hills at the age of 42. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed he died by suicide.

To talk CBS News Sunday MorningThe 76-year-old comedian and actor compared his daughter’s death to that of his wife, Nancy Dolman, who died of ovarian cancer in 2010 at the age of 58.

“Understanding [is] “Mental health and cancer, like my wife’s, are both illnesses, sometimes fatal with illnesses,” Short said. “And my daughter struggled for a long time with extreme mental health, borderline personality disorder, and other things, and did the best she could until she couldn’t.”

“Nan’s last words to me were: ‘Martin, let me go.’ And what [Katherine] I was just saying [was]’Dad, let me go.’”

Short said he has a “deep desire” to “bring mental health out of the shadows” so that people are “not ashamed” of talking about it.

“It’s not about hiding from the word suicide, it’s about accepting that this may be the final stage of the disease,” he said.

Short also talked about losing several close friends and family in the past year, including her sister-in-law, her daughter and her friends Diane Keaton, Rob and Michele Reiner, and Catherine O’Hara.

“It’s amazing,” he said, adding: “You just have to inhale, exhale.”

Katherine was the oldest of three children adopted by Short and Dolman. Although he sometimes attends events and walks red carpets with his father, he has largely stayed out of the spotlight. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and gender sexuality studies from New York University in 2006, a master’s degree in social work from the University of Southern California in 2010, and continued to work in private practice as a licensed clinical social worker.

Short has previously spoken of losing Dolman, telling the Guardian in 2012: “It’s something we go through life in denial, it can happen to us or to our loved ones and when it happens you win some and you suffer some. There’s no big surprise.”

Martin spoke to CBS ahead of the new Netflix documentary film about his life called Marty, Life Is Short, which will be released on May 12. The documentary touches on Short’s many experiences of loss early in his life: His older brother, David, died in a car accident when Short was 12, and both of his parents died when he was still a teenager.

Short said this led him to develop “the muscle to deal with survival and grief and a perspective on that,” as well as the courage to be an artist: “I think if you’ve been through that, an audience that doesn’t like you really isn’t that big of a deal anymore.”